This invention is directed to a multi-directional adjustable prosthetic socket for a post operative amputee having a newly residual limb. Persons who have lost their limb due to amputation are usually custom fitted, shortly after surgery, with a preparatory or temporary prosthetic device for use prior to fitting with a permanent prosthetic limb. These devices must be custom made because of the individual physiological difference in the residual limb volume, including but not limited to the length of the residual limb. In addition, these preparatory (for eventual replacement by permanent sockets), below the knee, prosthetic sockets must be interchanged frequently because of the gradual reduction of the initial post-operative edema and the reduction in stump volume due to compression within the prosthetic socket. Heretofore, prosthetic sockets of this type could not be mass produced resulting in a major cost to below-knee amputees for custom-made prostheses.
For these patients, volume changes in their below-the-knee residual limbs occur mainly in reductions in the posterior distal aspects as viewed in the saggital plane, reductions in the medial lateral and distal aspect as viewed in the frontal plane, and reduction in the popliteum area. These volume changes, heretofore, have been accommodated only by custom redesigning and custom making the prosthetic socket for the changing stump.